The overall purpose of this mult-method descriptive exploratory study is to identify women's definitions of intimate partner violence (IPV) within a health disparities context.
It aims to: 1) Describe how Mexican-American, Non-Hispanic White, and African-American women grouped according to socioeconomic status, generation, educational level, and language define IPV. 2) Capture appropriate words and phases that describe IPV from women's perspectives that have meaning for groups of women that may be a risk for health disparities. Eighteen focus groups of 8-10 women (180 women total) will be conducted. Women will be divided into relatively homogenous groups that reflect the populations of the community of San Antonio, TX. The criteria for inclusion in the study is: women, Mexican-American, African-American, or non-Hispanic white, between the ages of 18 and over, who speak English or Spanish, with no high school diploma to advanced educational degrees and who have a range of incomes. The value of focus group research method lies in the ability of focus group discussions to give the public health community a chance to explore issues with participants in great depth. What follows, then, can be a partnership in which mutual sharing (dialogue) and respect becomes the model of communication. Properly planned and moderated focus groups can reveal different, often more hidden, information than can other research methods. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe the forms of IPV for this population of women with age, ethnicity, education, and SES in terms of prevalence, frequency and chronicity. The second component of this multimethod study is the collection of data about the women's experiences with IPV. The Conflict Tactic Scale 2, a commonly used screening tool, will be completed after the group session. Negotiation, psychological aggression, physical assault, sexual coercion subscales will be calculated for each woman, each focus group, and the entire sample. Non-parametric comparisons will be made among groups. Subscales will be triangulated to the themes heard in focus groups. The product of this project will be a description of definitions, words, and phases that have meanings on IPV for the various ethnic/racial groups along with age, socioeconomic status. This description is essential in order to develop interventions that address women's perceptions within the context of health disparities.
